Wordless Wednesday: Little League Bound

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, check out The Life of Rylie...and Bryce Too!, The Florida Hogans, and Shibley Smiles!

Belated McFatty Monday and other stuff

I gave myself almost a week off from running. Since I had been going for just about six weeks straight, I was having some serious lower body aches. They weren't bad, but they weren't good either, and it was seriously hurting my motivation. So, I ran last Wednesday, then didn't run again until yesterday.

The scale was not happy with me (251...ugh...only a pound since last week, but up from 246 two weeks ago) but my body was. I hit the pavement last night with a renewed sense of motivation and energy. And today I was greeted with the familiar aches and pains, but they weren't accompanied with the feelings of exhaustion I had by the end of last week.

Seriously, thanks to the exhaustion, this past Saturday and Sunday were a total wash for me...I woke up Saturday and a half hour later was already taking a nap, and Sunday I napped off and on from 8 AM to 1 PM. I. Was. Exhausted.

One of my best friends, Rachel, is in school for personal training, and even though she lives two hours away, I'm allowing her to use me as her "guinea pig" as far as advice goes. Obviously with the distance, she can't work WITH me, but she can give me pointers. So, starting tomorrow, I'm implementing them once again and I sure hope, hope, hope that next week I do NOT see a number in the 250s on the scale. Or else I might kick it. And that, my friends, would hurt my toes.

Anyway, I'm sure more of you are interested in reading about my adorable daughter than my inability to move my fat ass.

We hit another linguistic milestone with Angelica this past week. This girl loves to tell stories now. Complex ones at that. For example, yesterday when I picked her up from daycare, her teacher, Ms. Lisa, told me that she didn't want to sit on the potty that afternoon. So while I was loading Angelica in the car, I asked her if she used the potty at school.

She said: No, I was crying on the floor, and then Ms. Lisa put on my dinosaur diaper!
Me: Why were you crying?
Angelica: Because, the potty it was too big for me.
Me: Oh, did you need help?
Angelica: Yeah, because it too big and I scared.
Me: Oh, I see. Well, next time, just tell Ms. Lisa you need help, okay?
Angelica: Okay.

I also asked her who she played with at school, and she named every single teacher and classmate, and then said she didn't play with one of them because "she is on bay-cation!" Sure enough, that particular little girl is on vacation :)

Alright, so these conversations may not seem so cool to someone reading this blog, but they were cool to ME since I'm finding more and more that I can now have meaningful conversations with Angelica.

In other news, Scott introduced Angelica to the Nintendo DS this past weekend. He popped in Nintendogs and Animal Crossing for her. Nintendogs was her favorite and she even knows how to operate the menus to get out a bubble wand to blow bubbles for the doggies. She keeps walking around with the DS saying "Mommy, this is MY special, okay? You no touch it." And so the obsession begins... :)

Independence/Defiance

I think when it comes to Angelica, they're independence and defiance in the same. The tantrums have been replaced by outright refusing to do anything I ask her to do and not caving in until something happens to motivate her. Usually, it's me saying she can't watch Dora, but that doesn't seem to work anymore...

When I picked her up at daycare yesterday, I was attempting to get her in the car. She WOULD NOT SIT. We went back and forth with me asking nicely, asking firmly, asking firmly, and threatening that she would not be allowed to watch Dora...in that time the daycare closed and the teachers went home and here I was, still arguing with her to please sit down in her car seat!

Eventually she leapt out of the car and I barely caught her...and she took off running, laughing, yelling "Can't catch me! Can't catch me!"

Here's where all that running I've been doing lately came in handy. :) I chased her, caught her, put her in the car, she squirmed out again and we repeated. A lot. (Had this been a busy parking lot, I would have been more diligent but it's a VERY small daycare with a very small parking lot, and it was closed. So no traffic.)

After awhile of "Can't catch meeeee!" and "This is fun!" and "I love running!" she plopped down on the grass. We had the following conversation:

Me: "Angelica, can you please get in the car now?"
Angelica: "No. I sitting on the grass!"
Me: "Please get in the car."
Angelica: "No! I NOT get in the car."
Me: "Well then, no watching Dora when we get home."
Angelica: "No, I don't WANNA watch Dora!"
Me: "Okay then. If you don't, I'm going to tell Daddy you're misbehaving."
Angelica: "NO. YOU not tell Daddy."
Me: "Then get in the car."
Angelica: "No! I not going to get in the car, ANYMORE."
::phone rings:: (Perfect timing!)
Me: "Gellie, Daddy is calling and if you don't get in the car, I'm going to answer and tell him you're misbehaving!"
"Nooooooo!" ::jumps up:: "I gots to climb in the car!"
(She then climbs in the car.)
Me: "Ok, Angelica, sit on your butt."
Angelica: "I NO sit on my butt, ANYMORE."
Me: "Oh, you're never going to sit on your butt ever again? Then what are you going to sit on?"
Angelica: ::blank stare, sits down::
Me: (I buckle her in) "Thanks for sitting down."
Angelica: "Sorry Mommy..."

Lucky for her she has a patient mommy who doesn't back down. Unluckily for me, if this is any indication of how she'll be as a teenager...well...we'll cross that bridge in another 11 years...

Wordless Wednesday: First "Train" Ride

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, check out The Life of Rylie...and Bryce Too!, The Florida Hogans, and Shibley Smiles!

NOT McFatty Monday

I'm not writing a McFatty Monday post this week. Let's just say that we had a lot of good times and overindulgence this past weekend (Pizza THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW? Check!) and the number on the scale this morning was embarrassing. Big time.

In spite of the overindulgence, we had a lot of fun! Friday our friends Gary and Anna came over...we all had dinner together and then Anna and I had a "girls night out" of sorts. We went out and got frozen yogurt and talked until almost 11:30 at night.

Saturday we celebrated my mom's birthday. My sister's kids were there also, so the cousins all got to play together. The best part? After dinner, we were cutting the birthday cake and my mom asked, "Who wants cake?" Angelica shot her hand up in the air and yelled, "ME! I WANT CAKE!" I'm still laughing.

Yesterday we visited with Scott's grandparents and cousin, who live about an hour and a half north of us. (Well, his grandma mostly stays in Connecticut now helping out a family member, but she was in town for a few days.) Angelica got to go in the swimming pool with water wings on and she was a natural. She loved it, and kept saying, "Look at me! I'm SWIMMING!" And making Daddy do "big jumps" into the pool. I have a picture (crappy quality, from my Blackberry)...

(Don't worry, Scott was in the pool with her, just out of frame.)

I guess swimming lessons are in this girl's near future. She loves the water!

So, that was a much happier post/recap of the weekend than my McFatty Monday post would have been this week :) Maybe next week I'll have good news on that front!

Being a leader in your child's life

I apologize for being mostly absent from the blogging world this week...we had Scott's sister and boyfriend visiting for a couple of days, which was wonderful, and I got sick as well, which was not so wonderful, so it's been a hectic week.

I am a big, big fan of Dave Ramsay...we have been on his Total Money Makeover plan for a couple of months now, and I've been following his podcast religiously in that time. Earlier this week, he had former NFL coach Tony Dungy as a guest speaker on his show, discussing his new book, The Mentor Leader.

During his interview, Dungy mentioned something that his first boss told him...that his job, as a coach, was to help each player on his team play to the best of his ability. (That's not a direct quote -- I'm paraphrasing.) I felt very strongly that this same concept applies to parenting, and I've been kicking around the idea of posting about it for a few days, trying to get my thoughts as organized as possible.

My first thought was -- why is it important to be a mentor leader in your child's life? I'm not keen on being your child's best friend. I think that blurs the lines of the parent/child boundaries. That's not to say you shouldn't be friendly with your child. You need to have a good relationship with them, play them, be open with them and act with integrity so that they trust you. But you also need to be a parent and not be afraid to lay down the law when necessary. You need to be a leader and a mentor for your child so that in high school, Johnny Potsmoker doesn't.

With that in mind, I think the biggest purpose as a mentor-leader in your children's lives is to help them reach their full potential. Lead by example. Live by your morals and values so they will too. Make no topic of conversation off-limits if your children have questions. Encourage them academically, encourage them in their interests, talents, and hobbies, and encourage them to explore beyond the boundaries of these, without pushing them to continue participation in activities they don't like or putting so much pressure on the that it damages their self esteem.

Some examples from my own life...and I am by no means perfect...but I'm trying to, as Dave says, "change the family tree" both in terms of health and wealth. I'm also trying to emphasize the importance of fitness, and of staying debt free. I run three times a week and I discuss it on simple terms with Angelica. I'll get ready to go and say, "Mommy's going for a run!" She usually asks to come too...one of these days when it's not blistering hot, and not right at her bedtime, I'll bring her along. (The best? The other night I got ready to run and she said, "Oh mommy! You look pretty!" She loves me in my ratty running shorts and messy ponytail!)

I also set the financial example by spending cash. Several months ago, she had gotten into the habit of asking me to "swiper my card" at the register. Now she sees me pay cash at the grocery store. She loves to get the leftover pennies to put in her piggy bank and then shake it to hear the coins rattle. She also knows she's not allowed to open it until she's 18. (I doubt she has a concept of time that far in the future, but she knows she can't open it right now. Delayed gratification, my friends!)

Even at her early age, I also emphasize education. My parents started me with flash cards and workbooks at a young age and by kindergarten I was reading at a 6th grade level and could do some complex math. I don't want to push her to the point of frustration, but she loves to participate in learning activities so we do them a little bit each day -- starting just like I did, with flash cards and workbooks. I'm even doing some self-study on early childhood learning to help her.

As she gets older, I hope the fact that I'm involved in her life and living by the values I want her to adopt helps us build a strong foundation for trust and open communication. All things with parenting are a challenge, and I really hope that in this process I'm putting into motion, I can be the mentor-leader that she deserves to have in order to become all that she can be.

Wordless Wednesday: Kisses for Daddy

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, check out The Life of Rylie...and Bryce Too!, The Florida Hogans, and Shibley Smiles!

McFatty Monday: One Pound At a Time

247!

I guess I'm now taking it off the same way it came on -- one pound at a time.

Last week I said that I'd be repeating week 3 of Couch to 5k. Well, on Wednesday, I got dressed, laced up my running shoes, walked out the front door, iPod and GPS in hand, locked and ready to go when I noticed...week 3 was GONE from my playlist. So I did what any logical person (HAHA) would do. I did week 4.

I'm glad I did. It was completely exhilarating. I went in feeling like there was NO WAY I would be able to do it. Here's why: I struggled with week 3's workout. And let's compare them:

Week 3:
5 min. warmup
Run 90 seconds
Walk 90 seconds
Run 3 mins
Walk 3 mins
Run 90 seconds
Walk 90 seconds
Run 3 mins
Walk 3 mins
Cool-Down

Week 4:
5 min warmup
Run 3 mins
Walk 90 seconds
Run 5 mins
Walk 2 mins, 30 seconds
Run 3 mins
Walk 90 seconds
Run 5 mins
Cool-Down

During week 3 I fought with those 3 minute runs, and I went into week 4 thinking there was no way I'd make it through one, much less two, five minute runs.

But I did. I did it two of the three days! (The exception was last night, when I was NOT in a good mood and didn't want to run in the first place but I still went.)

So, we're on to week 5 and halfway through the challenge! WOOHOO! This week is going to be SUPER difficult. It's three different workouts, culminating in a 20 minute non-stop run. I don't think I have ever run twenty minutes straight in my entire life. I'm looking forward to the challenge, though!

This morning, I was listening to Dave Ramsey's podcast when he quoted the phrase "People with goals succeed because they know where they're going." I think that's why this program is working so well for me. I KNOW the goal I'm working toward (both financially, but in terms of this post, physically), and I know how to get there. Progress is being made. :)

I'm a guest blogger!

Today I have a guest blog up over at The Life of Rylie...and Bryce Too! Check it out to read a cute story about the day I found out Angelica was going to be a girl!

Lollipop Friday

This morning, as we're getting ready for daycare/work, I said to Angelica, "Guess what! Today is FRIDAY! Hurray!"

Then I said to Scott, "I bet she has no idea what that really means yet." He agreed with me.

About 45 minutes later, I'm giving her hugs and kisses goodbye as we're heading out the door...she then jumps up and down and says, "Mommy! Today is FRIDAY, I get a LOLLIPOP today! Yay!"

Every Friday at her daycare, they give lollipops to the kids as they leave at the end of the day, and every day she asks for one, hoping that it'll be "THE" lollipop day...I didn't realize that she made the connection between Fridays and lollipops. It was just REALLY cute.

Wordless Wednesday: For the future boyfriends...

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, check out The Life of Rylie...and Bryce Too!, The Florida Hogans, and Shibley Smiles!

I hope I never forget tonight.

It's nights like tonight that remind me why I decided to have a child.

It was just me and her tonight, Scott had to work late. The evening started off with picking up Angelica from school. I brought along some water and raisins for her to attack the "I'm hungry/thirsty" whining from the get-go.

We get home, snuggle, watch a couple YouTube episodes of Hopla (which is probably the most boring cartoon ever, but Angelica's latest obsession) and then she played Elmo's Keyboard-o-Rama (on SesameStreet.org) while I cooked dinner. That game impressed the heck out of her. She found a few letters she liked and kept pressing them over and over again, yelling, "Look, a K for Kite!" or "Look, and L for Lollipop!" and a couple of others.

We had pasta for dinner and afterward we danced like fools to the LazyTown soundtrack. And when I mean, danced like fools, I mean, danced until I was exhausted, panting and sweaty. And we both were laughing. That lead to chasing each other up and down the hall, "marching", and "sleeping"...she got her pillow and blanket and laid them out in the hall and insisted I "sleep" next to her. Fake snoring and all. Then she'd say, "Okay, it's wake up time," tell me to get up and follow her, and we'd repeat. Dance. March. Sleep. March. Dance. March. Sleep. So much fun. One of the times we were "sleeping", she even gave me one of her extra loveys because I didn't have one.

At one point, she made my LIFE. She grabbed my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred video, pointed to Jillian and said, "Look, Mommy, that's like YOU!" Jillian Michaels I am not, but if my toddler thinks I am, then I must be doing something right!

She followed that up by ripping off her diaper, bending over, pulling apart her cheeks and farting. And then laughing hysterically. No idea where she learned that. (Dear 14 year old Angelica, if you're reading this: Sorry, but mom's gotta have SOME embarrassing stories to scare off future boyfriends!)

As I was filling up the bathtub for her, she was playing peek-a-boo with me with the bedroom door across the hall, and at one point, opened it up, said, "Look, Mommy! I have something for you!" And then proceeded to pee all over the floor. (Again: 14 year old Angelica -- apologies for the embarrassment!) This is why potty training isn't working so great right now. She thinks pee is funny.

In the bathtub, she sat on her plastic sailboat and said, "Oops! I have a boat in my butt!" She also took the cup I keep in there for rinsing her hair and threw water in my face repeatedly, and when she was done with that, stood up, pretended to hit her head on the wall and yelled "Ouch! It hurts me!" And laughed.

We finished up with PJs and storytime, hugs and kisses and now I'm listening to her slowly drifting off to sleep over the monitor with sides that ache from laughing so hard at all the fun we had. I would not have traded a moment of tonight for anything. This girl is pure magic.

(Zero meltdowns/tantrums tonight, too. Awesome.)

McFatty Monday: Holding Steady (Again)

Here I am at 248, week 2.

I'm not fretting this week, either. Why? Because I LOOK different. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. At my niece's birthday party, when we arrived at the party, so many people told me how GREAT I look. And each and every one of you who said that -- I LOVE YOU PEOPLE. You made my day.

I went up a notch on my belt. I had to retire a couple of shirts that were so big they slid off my shoulders when I wore them. I must be losing fat and building muscle and that's why I'm maintaining.

Oh, and my energy level? Now that "that time" is over with and my energy levels have returned, I feel A-MAZING. I was able to keep up with the kiddo at Chuckie Cheese's last weekend instead of feeling exhausted...and we hit the mall afterward also. Woohoo!

So, no complaints about maintenance this week. I feel so lucky.

In Couch to 5k news, I completed week 3 last night and I'm glad to have it over with. So glad, in fact, that I am pretty sure I will be repeating it this week. It was a tough workout and I just don't feel ready to jump up to week 4's level yet. My overall running speed dropped this week and I think it was because of the fatigue caused by it being "that time" of the month. Another week at this level and I think I'll be ready to progress, and still complete the program in time for the 5k I want to run this September!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend :)

Weekend Recap

It's been a fun, busy weekend...

Yesterday, Angelica's cousin Anna turned two! I haven't downloaded all of the photos yet, but here's a cute one of Angelica giving the birthday girl a birthday hug:

(Yes, she's overdressed. She insisted on wearing a pretty dress to the party.)

Today was "chore day" and my final run day for the week, but that doesn't mean we didn't have time for cuteness! I was greeted after naptime by Angelica running down the hall, knocking me over, hugging me super tight and saying, "I MISSED you!" I'm still mopping up the remaining parts of my heart that melted in the hallway.

We also bid farewell to our cable boxes today. Goodbye cable, hello extra $80/month!

I'll have a more complete recap of the party later, complete with pictures!

Magic Flash Cards

A new activity that Angelica and I have been doing lately is flash cards. (She calls them "magic cards" because she's fascinated by our Magic the Gathering cards...it's cute.) I picked up a pack of alphabet flash cards at Target and we go through them about once a day. She loves it!

Right now, I'd say she's got about half of the alphabet committed to memory. There's a few she has trouble with, mainly B, P, and D (she calls all of them P because the lower case versions of the letters look similar), and C and Z sound the same when she says them...and she thinks S is also Z.

There are some really cute things she does when we're doing flash cards:
1. If she doesn't know one, she says, in the sweetest voice ever, "I don't know" or "You say it!"
2. If she gets one wrong and I correct her, she tenses up and shuffles her legs the same way every time, so I can see that she's upset about being wrong. This actually makes me kind of sad for her so I'll tell her it's okay to be wrong and we'll come back to it.
3. If she doesn't know, sometimes she will guess and when I correct her, she'll insist she was right. For example, I'll hold up a J, she'll say it's an L...I'll correct her and say it's a J, and she'll say, "No! It's an L!"
4. When she gets one right, she is SO proud of herself. She'll clap for herself and say something like, "Yay! It's a (letter name)!" or "Yay! I did it all by myself!"

The fact that she can get through about half the letters though makes me so proud. My baby girl is SO smart!

Wordless Wednesday: This time two years ago...

(Okay so this is kind of a cop-out...but I had a pretty stressful day yesterday and didn't really have time to pull out the cutest most recent picture, so you'll have to take these cute ones instead.)

(This photo of Angelica was taken the day her cousin Anna was born -- Anna will be TWO this weekend!)

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, check out The Life of Rylie...and Bryce Too!, The Florida Hogans, and Shibley Smiles!

The Kidney Doctor Follow-Up

Angelica went for her biannual visit to the pediatric urologist, whom I often refer to as "the kidney doctor" because it sounds less sterile and medical. We started out the morning at Arnold Palmer for the renal ultrasound (or, as I told her they were called, "pictures of her tummy") which was accompanied by lots and lots of screaming. You'd have thought someone was stabbing the poor child. She hated ultrasounds when I was pregnant with her too so it's really not surprising. Anytime an ultrasound tech came near my belly (which was a lot, since I was high risk) I could always feel her FLY over to the other side of my stomach. Today I told her that in 25 years she may actually have an experience that would make an ultrasound exciting.

Next we headed over to Nemours, and due to an emergency we had to wait. And wait. Our appointment was at 10:45 and it was close to noon before we were seen. He looked at the ultrasounds and said everything looked good, and...dum dum dum DUM! We now don't have to be seen for another year (instead of six months), unless there's a problem. And, once she's potty trained, we can take her off of the preventative antibiotics. Yippee! He also said unless there's a problem we'll probably skip putting her through another VCUG. Thank goodness. I don't think I have the stomach to watch her go through another one of those procedures.

Speaking of potty training, she's been "practicing". We got her Dora and Minnie Mouse panties but she doesn't seem to quite "get it" yet. She'll wet herself and then ask to use the potty. I think we'll probably revisit it in another few months, to save the expense of doing pee-covered laundry and shampooing the carpet multiple times a day :)

McFatty Monday: Two steps forward, one step back

248. Up one pound.

I'm not fretting about it, because (TMI alert) Aunt Flo is visiting and I always pick up a pound or two of water weight around that time. Oh, and the overindulgences on chocolate and ice cream probably didn't help.

I finished week 2 of the Couch to 5k program last night and I am SO pleased with how it's going. Every day I'm able to run just a little bit faster and a little bit longer than the day before, and during last night's run I was finding myself reaching the end of the 90 second sprint and thinking, "That's it?" It's such a stark contrast to the first day of week 1, where the sprints were only 60 seconds and I was struggling to finish that.

The only "bad" run I had this week was Friday. I had a lot going on that day so I decided to do my run during the day, and unfortunately I didn't get going until right at 12pm. The. Hottest. Part. Of. The. Day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the heat index was 106, so I felt like I was running through a pit of FIRE.

This week should be good. On Wednesday I start Week 3 of the program, where it REALLY gets amped up...alternating 90 seconds walking/90 seconds running and 3 minutes walking/3 minutes running. I'm excited to see how THAT goes because some of those runs essentially double the time I ran last week. I'm going to try to add in some strength training to improve my speed and endurance as well.

And with that, I'm really out of things to day. The rest of you who are on McFatty Monday, here's hoping you had success this week!